From Shetland to the Scilly Isles, Open Country travels the UK in search of the stories, the people and the wildlife that make our countryside such a vibrant place. Each week we visit a new area to hear how local people are growing the crops, protecting the environment, maintaining the traditions and cooking the food that makes their corner of rural Britain unique.
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Eigg which, along with Rum, Muck and Canna is one of the Small Isles, part of the Inner Hebrides group lying ten miles off the west coast of Scotland. It's only three miles by five and home to 78 people.

Five years ago the island became a powerful symbol of independence and self-determination when the islanders, in conjunction with the Scottish Wildlife Trust and the Highland Council, took over the land for themselves having appealed for funds to set up the Trust which still runs Eigg. After years of living under private and often absentee ownership, the islanders, many of whom had moved on to the island in the 70s, found themselves at last in charge of their own future.
Eigg

For only the second time since the Trust took over the running of Eigg a property is up for sale, so Helen Mark sets out to test out the reality of island life and find out what is in store for whoever ends up buying Howlin House. Does many people's dream of living the island life have a basis in reality?

Helen starts her visit on The Shearwater, the ferry running from Arisaig to Eigg. It's an hour's crossing, sometimes made longer by impromptu whale watching stops.
Eigg info

Travelling alongside her are members of theatrecollective@highland, a company working with the Highland Festival and on their way to Eigg for a single performance that night.
theatrecollective@highlandHighland Festival

Maggie Fyffe is the first person to welcome Helen to Eigg - she's lived on the island for 26 years and describes life there as like living in a big family. She was one of the driving forces behind the buy-out, and says that anyone coming to live on Eigg has to realise that they'll have their lives shared day in, day out by the other residents. She does wonder how it felt for her daughter, growing up on the island, to be observed by so many people but feels that the benefits of living in a close-knit community outweigh the potential claustrophobia.

The Sgurr

John Chester came to Eigg in 1986, sent by the Scottish Wildlife Trust for just a few months to monitor birdlife, but he never left. He takes Helen to see The Sgurr, Eigg's most photographed view, a magnificent plug of pitchstone, once a river of lava, now a 1300 foot landmark rising high over the heather moorland.

He has advice for potential newcomers: be prepared for small, possibly insignificant irritations to build up into major problems. Everything depends on the weather, nothing can ever be done quickly, and the winters are bleak. If you're not an island sort of person, don't give it a second thought
Scottish Wildlife Trust

The island has just celebrated the 200th anniversary of the birth of Hugh Miller (1802-1856), the stonemason who has become a folk hero for his support of the working man in Scotland. His self-taught passion was geology, and on Eigg he discovered the remains of a plesiosaur, described to Helen as ¨a kind of Nessie¨ by local historian Camille Dressler. In The Cruise of the Betsey Miller bequeathed an invaluable document of the island's social history, the hardship suffered by a people suffering from famine, outbreaks of TB and the heavy hand of the local laird. Camille feels that Miller would have approved of recent events on Eigg, and that he might well have been proud of what the present-day residents have done for the island
Hugh Miller

After a night spent at the social event of the year, the performance by the theatrecollective@highland of The Accidental Death of an Accordionist, Helen heads off to see Howlin House, the property for sale for anyone wanting to adopt the island lifestyle. She's shown round by Simon Helliwell, who in his 27 years on Eigg has worked to restore many of the properties on Eigg. This one will need to be renovated by the new owners, so the £40,000 asking price really just buys the four walls and the magnificent view. It'll cost at least twice as much again to bring it up to the standard of the other cottages on the island. That, though, says Simon, is incidental, the main thing is that the person or, preferably, family, coming to Eigg will make a contribution to island life and understand what it's all about

If Hugh Miller did a great deal to record Eigg's social history, others since have followed his example using pictures as well as words. Helen next goes to Eigg's day care centre to meet Sheena Kean to see the island's magnificent photographic archive, compiled by the Isle of Eigg History Society. Using census data, oral history recorded from the island's oldest inhabitants and close to 1000 photographs gathered from local people, the archive shows how much has changed on Eigg. Sheena, though, points out that the spirit of Eigg has remained very much the same, and that any new arrivals will need to be aware of the richness of the island's past if they are to make any real contribution to its present.

Finally, back to the pier for the boat trip back to the mainland. Cabbie Davie Robertson, whose route only stretches for four miles or so, hopes that whoever does come to live in Howlin House will be prepared for the bleakness of the place outside the summer months. Only a Scot, he says, and possibly only a Highlander, can appreciate the reality of Eigg as opposed to the fantasy of an island lifestyle.

This week's competition

To win a copy of Camille Dressler's Eigg: The Story of an Island (published by Polygon, ISBN number 0 7486 6224 3), tell us what are the Singing Sands and what makes them sing?